1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for flexible printed circuits, especially to a flexible printed circuit connector for easy assembling flexible printed circuits thereto and retaining the flexible printed circuits reliably and precisely.
2. The Related Art
Flexible printed circuit (FPC) is high resilient and lightweight, so that it is widely used in electrical devices. A FPC connector is used to electrically connect a FPC to another FPC, or a rigid printed circuit, or other electrical components. One such conventional FPC connector, as shown in FIG. 11, is provided for permanent connecting a first FPC on one end thereof and provides a receiving slot on the other end thereof to receive a second FPC. The permanent connecting of the first FPC to the conventional FPC connector is performed by Surface Mounting Technology (SMT). It is well known that the SMT procedure is complicated and the conditions for the operation of SMT are too strict, thereby creating the problem that it is troublesome to assemble the first FPC to the conventional FPC connector.
On the other hand, when the second FPC is received in the receiving slot, the FPC connector provides conventional engagement means to secure the second FPC. However, conventional engagement means usually cannot provide enough force to retain the second FPC. Furthermore, the conventional connector has no anchoring mechanism to locate the second FPC, so that the second FPC can not be ensured to be precisely and reliably retained in the conventional connector, which may result in a bad electric effect.